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Yes.
Several reports and doctors’ accounts indicate that pregnant individuals in Wisconsin have been forced to delay or were denied medical care during a miscarriage due to the state’s abortion ban.
The New York Times reported the story of a Wisconsin woman — as told by her gynecologist — who bled for days from a miscarriage after a hospital declined to perform a procedure to remove the fetus “because of the laws.”
NBC News reported that after a woman’s water broke at 18 weeks — to early for a fetus to survive — and she started showing signs of infection, her doctor “faced a dilemma” about whether to perform an abortion, fearing, “Will the DA go after me and I end up fined or in jail?”
Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban permits abortions only to save the life of a pregnant person. Experts and doctors have said the antiquated language of the Wisconsin law causes confusion about when doctors can intervene and provide medical care to individuals facing miscarriage.
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Sources
New York Times: They Had Miscarriages, and New Abortion Laws Obstructed Treatment
NBC News: Pregnant women in states with abortion bans face the reality of a post-Roe world
Wisconsin State Legislature: Wisconsin Legislature: 940.04
Wisconsin Watch: Wisconsin’s 173-year-old ban allows only life-saving ‘therapeutic abortions.’ No one knows what that means.
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